Florida Dem. calls Rick Scott ‘Governor Loco’ over Obamacare block

The head of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Democratic Party ripped Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) in an interview with MSNBC host Ed Schultz on Friday, blaming Scott for his administration’s latest move against the Affordable Care Act.

“Earlier you were saying that elections have consequences,” Annette Taddeo told Schultz. “Well, in Florida we have a big consequence in ‘Governor Loco,’ Rick Scott. He has decided [that] we cannot have healthcare at any cost. He doesn’t about us — the people who live here, and who need this health insurance.”

Taddeo also pointed out that nearly a quarter of the 4 million Floridians currently lacking health insurance are Latinos, which she said made her wonder what Scott was thinking, a reference to the state health department barring outreach workers for the law (commonly known as Obamacare) from helping patients sign up for the healthcare exchanges it will implement as of Oct. 1.

Scott has opposed letting the workers, known as “navigators,” into the state’s county facilities, arguing that he was concerned over patients’ private information being fed into a federal database.

“He is truly, truly insane,” Taddeo argued to Schultz, saying Republicans have disseminated misinformation about the law in both English- and Spanish-language media without proposing their own alternative.

“That’s their mission,” Schultz responded. “If they can turn it to a negative — If you can go back to people a year from now, people saying, ‘Well, I didn’t sign up for Obamacare, I didn’t know anything about it,’ it’s really limiting access to people to health care, and they’re using government resources to do it.”

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Arturo R. García is the managing editor at Racialicious.com. He is based in San Diego, California and has written for both print and broadcast media, including contributions to GlobalComment.com, The Root and Comment Is Free. Follow him on Twitter at @ABoyNamedArt